Women’s tennis has a new No. 1 for the first time in nearly two years: Who is Jannik Sinner’s new “across-the-net opponent”?

By defeating China’s Zheng Qinwen two sets to one, Elena Rybakina has already secured Aryna Sabalenka’s spot at the top of the WTA rankings when the official rankings are updated on Monday. Reaching the semifinals of the U.S. Open is in fact enough for the Kazakhstani player, who has never before reached the top of the world tennis rankings.

The match against Zheng ended 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in favor of Rybakina, who emerged victorious after two hours and fifteen minutes at Flushing Meadows and advanced to the women’s singles semifinals: this means she will reach at least 8,681 ranking points, while Aryna Sabalenka, who had led the world rankings until today, would not be able to exceed 8,575 points even if she were to win the U.S. Open.

Since the introduction of the WTA rankings on November 3, 1975, no athlete from Kazakhstan had ever reached the top of the rankings: Rybakina succeeds Aryna Sabalenka, who had held the top spot continuously since October 2024 and had previously held it from September 11 to November 5, 2023.

Elena Rybakina is also the 30th player ever to claim the throne of women’s tennis: those who preceded her are Chris Evert, Evonne Goolagong, Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Amélie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Janković, Dinara Safina, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Angelique Kerber, Karolina Pliskova, Garbiñe Muguruza, Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka, Ashleigh Barty, Iga Swiatek, and Aryna Sabalenka.